Chell thoughts
by Arrghus
Summary: Bits and pieces of the silent protagonist's thoughts as she makes it through the story of Portal 2. One shot.
1. Chapter 1

There is a boy knocking on my door.

I wake up in a shabby motel room with a headache like I drank twice my own weight in pure alcohol last night (Science tells me that's impossible. Science can stuff it) and there is a boy knocking on my door. There is something decidedly surreal about the situation, but my mind is foggy, and I can't remember what it is.

Oh yes. The death robot. The murderous engine of destruction which considers itself my mother and which I had to fight my way through to get out of my previous place of residence. The door once again reminds me that there is a boy standing outside it.

I open the door, and find that the boy, too, is a robot. I suppose this is what passes for normal in these parts. The robot boy lets itself into my room, talking and joking and lying. He's smooth, in a disarmingly awkward way. He insults me to my face and then talks it over, pretending nothing happened. It reminds me of something I read about once, negging, the practice of undermining someone's confidence in order to make them more sympathetic to you. I feel momentarily defensive, then shake the thought, the robot boy is obviously too incompetent to perpetrate such a scheme.

He asks me to run away with him. Well, not in so many words, but as we (he) speaks, the sentiment is made clear. He needs me to get an old thing of mine, so we again head back into the place I fought so hard to leave behind forever.


	2. Chapter 2

She's back. I fought so hard to get rid of her, to put her out of my misery and move on, but one tiny (huge) mistake from the robot boy and she's back in my life again. She lifts me up and I hang limp. For one tiny moment I feel like a ragdoll, like she'll always be there controlling my every move. Then she drops me in the place I dropped her and I remember why I fought her the last time she tried that shit, and why I'll fight her this time too.


	3. Chapter 3

Stupid stupid stupid. I am so stupid. Just because a guy's charming and funny and silly and interesting and utterly, utterly incredible doesn't mean he's _nice_.

I just gave Wheatley control of the facility. I met him not five days ago and I just handed him the keys to my life. In hindsight, that was a pretty stupid move. Admittedly, it meant getting the old death robot out of the machine, but the new one isn't what I for a brief, stupid moment believed he'd be. Oh well, live and learn, just one more challenge to beat, and this was better than my other idea anyway. Not like I had anything like the skills and equipment for that one, and it wouldn't let me escape anyway. Still, it was a nice daydream.

Not that I'm sure my head would even fit in that thing anyway. Like I said, wrong skill set.


	4. Chapter 4

Ok, ok. Assessment. I've lost my escape elevator, my companion turned evil and the closest thing I ever had to a mother figure just got trapped in a potato and eaten by a bird. Oh, and I'm trapped at the bottom of a mineshaft, thousands of feet underground. And I haven't eaten anything but potatoes in about six hours worth of heavy exercise. And I may or may not have brain damage (I've gone through what self-diagnostics I can remember off-hand a couple of times, but it's hard to know with brain damage).

Given what I know of what I'll likely need to get through to get back up, I am probably in the direst straits I've ever been in since, perhaps, graduation.

And it thrills me.


	5. Chapter 5

GLaDOS, we need to talk. The orphan thing? Kinda cute at first, but it's getting pretty stupid. You seem to like facts, so here's one for you. My parents don't have the same skin color I do, and no, my skin does not fall anywhere close to any kind of interpolated line between them. Also, they're both male. And one is sterile. Really. I figured out I was adopted at age _four_, and learned why at age six. Do you really think you can learn sanity-shattering secrets about a person by looking at their files? The _public_ files? As in _anyone can read them_? _Including me_?

Out of all the companies to figure out Artificial General Intelligence, why'd it have to be the one determined to make them just as moronic as the rest of us?


	6. Chapter 6

The cube. Out of all the possible things the old hag could have possibly given me for a souvenir, she hands over the freaking cube. The old, ratty cube with its corporate consumerism on the side. With the burn marks, because she had me throw it in the incinerator in some sick game (probably designed to teach me "independance" while forcing me to remain codependant with her and so ruining the exercise) even though she always knew it'd survive (because fun fact: ceramics aren't usually combustible).

It's too much, really. Far, far too much. Emotions well up, and now that I can finally show them without having to care about some robot peeking, I let it out. I laugh. I laugh and I laugh and I'm not sure when I stop, if ever.

Then, I look again at the brave new world ahead of me, and I leave the ratty old shed behind, cube and all.


End file.
